Italy – Europe Theatre Prize

EUROPE THEATRE PRIZE

The first edition of Europe Theatre Prize took place in 1987 as a pilot project of the European Commission, under the presidency of Jacques Delors and Carlo Ripa di Meana as the first Culture Commissioner. Since 2002, the Prize has been recognised by the European Parliament and Council as a “European cultural interest organization”. It is also designated as the project that will open the European Cultural Heritage Year in 2018.

Its aims are to promote the knowledge and diffusion of drama throughout Europe, to advance the development of cultural relationships and to strengthen European conscience. Europe Theatre Prize assigns, among others, two awards: the Europe Theatre Prize and the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities.

After nine editions held in Taormina, the Prize became itinerant. The X edition was held in Torino, the following two in Thessaloniki, then in Wroclaw, Saint Petersburg and in 2016 in Craiova. In 2017 the Prize has come back to Italy, in Rome. The Prize concludes the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, as a special project promoted by the Minister of Culture.

The XVI edition of the Europe Theatre Prize has awarded an actress and an actor whose theatrical role plays an important one into candidates selection: Isabelle Huppert and Jeremy Irons. According to Europe Theatre Prize, it was of particularly importance to award a Special Prize to Wole Soyinka and a Special Mention to Fadhel Jaibi. The XIV Europe Prize Theatrical Realities was awarded to Susanne Kennedy, Jernej Lorenci, Yael Ronen, Alessandro Sciarroni, Kirill Serebrennikov and Theater NO99 and a Special Prize to Dimitris Papaioannou.